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One week left to vote for the Century's top 100 Catholics

      Readers only have one week left to vote for the Top 100 Catholics Today we reveal the rankings for the Top 100 Catholics, listing the top 50 in order of voting. You have one week to vote for the person or persons you feel were the most influential Catholics in this century. We have had over 16,000 votes cast to date and are most encouraged by this turnout. There are no specific rules. You may vote as often as you wish and in mid-July we will begin the countdown from 100 on down daily here in the DAILY CATHOLIC leading up to the top ten Catholics in December. For the list of the fifty receiving the most votes so far, click on TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY

TOP 50 vote-getters of the TOP 100 in ranking as of June 25
(over 16,500 votes cast to date)

1. Pope John Paul II - 2,238
2. Mother Teresa - 1,457
3. Blessed Padre Pio - 1,302
4. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen - 1,216
5. Blessed Sister Faustina Kowalksa - 921
6. Saint Maximilian Kolbe - 874
7. Mother Angelica - 742
8. Pope Pius XII - 512
9 Pope Saint Pius X - 491
10. Pope Paul VI - 447

11. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - 389
12. Father Joseph Fessio, S.J. - 381
13. Blessed Josemaria Escriva - 372
14. Scott Hahn - 336
15. Pope John XXIII - 305
16. Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap.-277
17. St. Edith Stein - 274
18. Cardinal John J. O'Connor - 255
19. Karl Keating - 241
20. Fr. Jozo Zovko, OFM - 210

21. Wayne Weibel - 203
22. Visionaries of Medjugorje - 194
23. Dorothy Day - 193
24. Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz - 189
25. Fr. Michael Scanlon - 182
26. Pope Leo XIII - 172
27. Cardinal Francis George, OMI - 166
28. Visionaries of Fatima - 162
29. Ralph Martin - 159
30. Cyndi Cain - the Hidden Flower - 152

31. Pope Benedict XV - 144
32. Bud MacFarlane, Jr. - 137
33. Saint Maria Goretti - 135
34. Cardinal Francis Arinze - 129
35. Fr. Benedict Groeschel - 119
36. Cardinal James Francis Stafford - 109
37. Malachi Martin - 101
38. Joey Lomangino - 83
39. Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua - 81
40. Fr. Patrick Peyton - Rosary Priest - 56

41. John Leary - 54
42. Tom Monaghan - 53
43. Ida Perdemann - 44
44. Sister Nirmala - 42
45. Pope Pius XI - 39 -
46. Josyp Terelya 40
47. Fr. Frank Pavone - 29
48. Audrey Santo - 28
49. Blessed Andre Bessette - 27
50. Ron O'Brien - 26

      This summer on Monday's we will present the opportunity to review any of Pat Ludwa's thirty-two columns for this year. Original ones will run in Thursday's issues, but in Monday's issues we bring you these archives. For Pat's past columns, click on VIEW FROM THE PEW ARCHIVES

INSTALLMENTS TO DATE

• installment 32: Give and Take

• installment 31: The Law and God

• installment 30: Discouragement

• installment 29: May the Farce be with you!!

• installment 28: Dissent doesn't add up!

• installment 27: When language confuses

• installment 26: Gold Nuggets

• installment 25: Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy...

• installment 24: Mockery

• installment 23: We have met the enemy

• installment 22: Love and dissent

• installment 21: Bait and Hook: RENEW 2000

• installment 20: A dysfunctional family? part two

• installment 19: A dysfunctional family? part one

• installment 18: The speculation goes on

• installment 17: WWJD?

• installment 16: It's what's ON the Cross that counts!

• installment 15: War on the innocent: a battle for hearts and minds!

• installment 14: It's good to have friends in high places!

• installment 13: Which way?

• installment 12: Teaching from the Chair of Peter

• installment 11: The Chair of Peter is not just furniture

• installment 10: Do it yourself confession?!?

• installment 9: Mass Confusion part two

• installment 8: Mass Confusion part one

• installment 7: Remember!!!

• installment 6: Perfect Joy with Christ's Peace

• installment 5: What a concept!!

• installment 4: Humanae Vitae The cornerstone which the builders of the "spirit of Vatican II" have rejected!

• installment 3: This is hard work!

• installment 2: It's a matter of conscience

• installment 1: The Pope

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Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider, O.F.M. has a special place in his heart for Brazil's national shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida

      Our seventy-first red-hat we feature, in alphabetical order is Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider, O.F.M., the Archbishop of Aparecida, home of Brazil's famous national shrine of Aparecida. Because of this he has a special place in his heart for Our Lady of Aparecida. This son of German immigrants became a Franciscan priest on August 22, 1948 and was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope Paul VI in the Consistory of May 24, 1976. For more on Cardinal Lorscheider, click on COLLEGE OF CARDINALS COLLECTION

71.   Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider, O.F.M.

      Of German descent, Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider was born on October 8, 1924 in Estrela, Brazil in the Archdiocese of Porto Alegre. At only nine he heard the calling and enrolled in the Franciscans' minor seminary in Taquari, Brazil with his parents Joseph and Veronica Lorscheider's blessing. He was ordained a Franciscan priest on August 22, 1948 and assigned as a faculty member of the minor seminary in Taquari teaching Latin, German and Math there. After a few years he was sent to Rome where he earned a degree in Dogmatic Theology at the Antonianum there in 1952. He returned home where he was appointed professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Franciscans' major seminary in Divinopolis. Six years later the Father General recalled him to Rome to teach Dogmatic Theology at the Antonianum and serve as Director of the Franciscan International House of Studies for four years until Pope John XXIII named him a Bishop of Santo Angelo on May 20, 1962. Eleven years later Pope Paul VI elevated him to Archbishop of Fortaleza on March 26, 1973.

      A year after being named President of CELAM for a four year tenure in 1975, Paul VI elevated him to the cardinalate in the consistory of May 24, 1976 where he received the titular church of San Pietro in Montorio. He remained Archbishop of Fortaleza until July 12, 1995 when Pope John Paul II transferred him to the post of Archbishop of Aparecida, a position he still holds today at the age of 75, residing at Curia Metropolitana C.P. 05, Torre da Basilica 48 andar, 12570-000 Aparecida in the state of Sao Paolo, Brazil. He serves as a member of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Message to the Americas:
The Fruit of Communion is Solidarity with the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church

      Following up a year after the Bishops of North, Central and South America, along with the Caribbean contingent, met for the month-long Synod of the Americas in Rome at the end of 1997, Pope John Paul II officially closed the Synod with his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City in January 1999. Because of its significance for all Americans, we bring you this important document in several installments over the next few months. For those wanting to read the entire encyclical or check footnotes, go to Ecclesia in America For the eighteenth installment on Chapter Five: The Path to Solidarity - Solidarity, the Fruit of Communion , click on THE VICAR OF CHRIST SPEAKS.

"Your world is in turmoil and it will not cease until you come into the Refuge of My Sacred Heart."

      Those powerful words from Our Lord were imparted to the Hidden Flower of the Immaculate Heart on December 11, three days after His Blessed Mother, on the Solemn Feast of her Immaculate Conception, called for all to prayer and sacrifice in order to expedite the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart. She calls for all to pray for the Holy Father who is in great danger but is protected by the Holy Trinity because he has not yet finished the mission asked by Heaven. Jesus, in His Message emphasizes that the turmoil we experience is our own doing and it can be mitigated if we but heed His Holy Will and seek His Mercy - the Refuge of His Most Sacred Heart. For Messages #573 and #574 from the Sacred Heart and His Blessed Mother, click on "I SOLEMNLY TELL YOU..."

Message Five-Hundred-seventy-three, December 8, 1994

(Imparted to the Hidden Flower by the Immaculate Heart of Mary)

      Beloved Hidden Flower of my Immaculate Heart, I love and bless you.

      On this solemn feast of my Immaculate Conception, I obtain powerful graces for all who, in faith, so honor me and give to Almighty God all honor and glory.

      Give to me your humble prayers, sacrifices, all your Masses, Communions and good works. I take them as a fragrant bouquet to obtain mercy for all of my children everywhere.

      Dear children, I, your Heavenly Mother, do solemnly tell you that the time of great sorrow has already dawned, yet still you do not fully understand how to dwell peacefully in the Refuge of my Divine Son's Sacred Heart. Dear children, you must not speculate on God's Plans. You must not search Sacred Scripture merely seeking knowledge for the sake of knowing the future. God alone knows the future and He reveals only that which is for your good to know.

      My Immaculate Heart sorrows when I see your curiosity. I hear your speculation and grieve, for when you do this you are not filled with Holy Spirit, and you draw away from God, the Source of all Light.

      Therefore, I solemnly tell you to return to prayer from the heart, seeking Peace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, so that you persevere.

      I also beseech you to pray very much for my beloved Pope John Paul II. He is besieged by his enemies; yet I protect him for his work is not yet accomplished.

      Hear my words in faith. You look for signs - for warnings. But the time is not yet. When you hear the proclamation of the final dogma of my mission as Co-Redemptrix, Advocate and Mediatrix issued by my beloved Pope John Paul II, you will then be in the time of the Great Warning. I also tell you that you must not select this or that month, this or that feast day! Dear children, every day is holy to God, for He alone created night and day, and blesses the minutes and hours of the day and night. Those events you anticipate shall come, but they will come as a thief in the night when you least expect it. Only in humble obedience shall you heed my words given with all motherly affection.

      On this feast I obtain for each of you a special blessing, that you may persevere.

      I love you. I bless you. I am with you to prepare you. Pray very much and be ever watchful. Thank you for responding to my Call!

Message Five-Hundred-seventy-four, December 11, 1994

(Imparted to the Hidden Flower by the Sacred Heart of Jesus)

      Beloved Hidden Flower of My Mother's Immaculate Heart, I love and bless you as I bless all of My little ones.

      Your world is in turmoil and it will not cease until you come into the Refuge of My Sacred Heart.

      Dear children, hear Me, for I Am Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Do not reject Me, but live as I lived, in total obedience to the Will of My Father.

      How I long to pour out My Mercy upon you, O children of My Heart. You cry out with sighs and mourning for hope, but you do not find it. You are ever-restless, searching for true meaning, true hope.

      If you would know Hope then humble yourselves and dwell in humility. Learn from Me, for I came among you as a helpless child and remained obedient in all things even unto death. In humble obedience you will experience My Peace, and through prayer you will understand the Truth and have Hope.

      I love you. I bless you! Behold I come among you! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare!

      On this date 1,232 years ago Pope Saint Paul I, the 93rd successor of Peter passed on to his Heavenly reward. His ties to the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul stem from the fact he took Paul's name and that he discovered the tomb of Saint Petronella, thought to be the daughter of Saint Peter. For other pertinent events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES

Historical Events in Church Annals for June 28:

767 A.D.


Death of Pope Saint Paul I, 93rd successor of Peter, who encouraged a deeper union with the Greek Church and made it a habit of visiting prisoners and freeing those who had been incarcerated because of debts. It was Paul who discovered the remains of Saint Petronilla, considered the daughter of Saint Peter.

1243 A.D.


Cardinal Sinibaldo Fieschi of Genoa becomes Pope Innocent IV, 180th successor of Peter. His election took place in Anagni, Italy afater a two year vacancy. He convened the 13th Ecumenical Council, instituted the Feast of the Visitation, and undertook the Fifth Crusade with Saint Louis IX, King of France.

1476 A.D.


Birth of Giampietro Carafa in Naples. He would go on to become the 223rd successor of Peter as Pope Paul IV and reopen the Council of Trent, bringing it to a successful conclusion.

1476 A.D.


Birth of Henry VIII who would go from being Defender of the Faith to Apostate, turning his back on Rome and putting into motion terrible persecution of Catholics throughout Britain.

1519 A.D.


Charles V is elected Holy Roman Emperor. He would be thrust into the middle of the Protestant revolt and be tossed to and fro as a political "football" by the Protestant princes of Germany, spurring retaliation by the Catholic League and the beginning of the all-out religious wars of the sixteenth century.

1544 A.D.


Protestants turn Kelso Abbey in England into a fiery inferno as the purge against Catholics and religious loyal to Rome intensifies.

1794 A.D.


Death of Blessed Madeleine Fontaine, a Sister of Charity nun who was framed by anti-Catholics who planted treasonous documents against France in her cell. She was wrongly accused and sentenced to die by the fate of the guillotine. Before she was beheaded she prophesied that the persecution would end eventually and the Catholic Faith would be restored to its glory with the reopening of the churches after the French Revolution.

SIMPLY SHEEN: One sword slashes, another heals!

      They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".

"There are two kinds of swords: one that swings outward, and the other, which is thrust inward. One is to harm the neighbor, such as the sword of Peter that hacked off the ear of the high priest's servant. It was this kind of sword the Divine Master bade be put back into its scabbard. The other kind of sword is the one that cuts out egotism and selfishness and greed."

   Dear children! Today I thank you for living and witnessing my messages with your life. Little children, be strong and pray so that prayer may give you strength and joy. Only in this way will each of you be mine and I will lead you on the way of salvation. Little children, pray and with your life witness my presence here. May each day be a joyful witness for you of God's love. Thank you for having responded to my call.
For more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE

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The DAILY WORD

"Amen, amen I say to thee, when thou wast young thou didst gird thyself and walk where thou wouldst. But when thou art old thou wilt stretch forth thy hands, and another will gird thee, and lead thee where thou wouldst not."

John 21: 18

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Click here to go to SECTION TWO or click here to return to the graphics front page of this issue.

June 28, 1999 volume 10, no. 124   DAILY CATHOLIC